REC.AVIATION FLYIN - PINCKNEYVILLE 1999

-- The Gathering Of The Ilk --

   After the initial weather worries, I made it to the 1999 Rec.Aviation flyin, where many Ilk were gathered and arrived in interesting and unusual aircraft. I shot three rolls of film whilst I was there...and unfortunately I ran out of film! Here is a selection of my photographs from the fly-in. In my humble opinion, the P'ville flyin is the highlight of the aviation calendar. I got to meet the people who until now had just been names and text in the rec.aviation groups, and find out that they really are as obnoxious as they seem to be on the 'Net ;-) Many thanks go to John and Mary Johnson for putting the flyin on! Especially John's homebrews. They made the evenings go very well!

-- The Ilk Themselves --

The Zoomer won't like this! From left to right, Happy Miles, Fred Stewart, John Ousterhout and Badwater Bill pose for a photo.

This is the kind of Ilk the Zoomer warned us all about...the usual bunch of reprobates and dropouts...from left to right, starting from the back row... Dave "Nauga" Hyde, Happy Miles, Fred Stewart, John Ousterhout and Badwater Bill, (Front row) Ron Wanttaja and Tony Pucillo. They are all governing themselves accordingly.

Sydney arrives in Tigger, bearing gifts of brownies. She's some sort of biochemist so she's engineered the most incredible brownies of course. The Ilk then have to somehow chase off EAA Chapter 32 from St. Louis before they scoff all the brownies...

Badwater Bill and Fred Stewart have an armed confrontation, probably over who gets the last brownie. They really are that good!

This is the moment many of us have been waiting for...the homebuilt jet! Craig Wall's wonder flamer is being lit off, with many Ilk looking on.

Craig gets the flames going. Pastor Dave videos the event for posterity, as the engine gets going. The tuned induction does the job, and boy is this thing LOUD!

More innovations! Don Hausman's Automatic Aerosol Propelled Starch Redeployment System (or spud gun for short) causes an earth shattering recoil as it hurls a prize tuber for over 200 yards.

Tamping the charges, reloading and getting ready to fire another starch loaded root vegetable.

What did Sydney put in those brownies?!?! They seem to have had a bit of a side effect on poor ol' BWB and Shari Lee... ;-)

Ric Lee and Sydney Hoeltzi (sorry Sydney if I spelled your name wrong!) examine Dave Lyjak's superb Luscombe Silvaire, wondering how he possibly got so much camping gear into such a small space...

John Johnson, our illustrious host, kicks off the hangar lying^H^H^H^H^H flying session with a story or two... Many stories were told by the participants, goaded on by Badwater Bill.